Even Optical Engines will one day devolve into commodity parts, just like the original transistors and capacitors eventually did. We will have a patent-lock on these long enough to make container-shiploads of money before that happens though. 

I think that's what Germiston was getting at.

The OI will be a stepping stone into a new world of POET-developed componentry. I hope the GaAs drawing board still has notes on it, even though it's rolled for now into a dark lab corner and is draped with a sheet. Perhaps a dream, but if ARM could develop processors, why couldn't POET at some point? After the solution to the 4th terminal issue.... processors might even make the leap from Si to GaAs wafers.